Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/314

 CHINA

no connoisseur who has written of their era ascribes to them any particular proficiency in the manufacture of red monochromes, though there is no reason to suppose that they were much, if at all, less skilled in this direction than their Hsuan-té predecessors. Dur- ing the Cheng-fé period (1506-1522), however, the production of fine reds was certainly carried on. The potters of this time succeeded admirably in the two tones of red, rouge vif and ruby, and left behind them a reputation for such work. But of the Chza-ching era (1522-1566) it is recorded: —<In this epoch the clay used for rouge vif porcelains was exhausted, and the mode of stoving them ceased to be the same as before. With difficulty could they make vases of the colour called Fan-hung,”’ that is to say, red ob- tained from peroxide of iron. This is an important fact. What special kind of clay is referred to there is no means of determining, inasmuch as it is only known that in preparing the porcelain mass for red monochromes of C/i-hung type, the earth used for craquelé ware was employed in part, and there is nothing recorded as to a failure in the supply of this. petrosilex. But the question of colouring material is plain. Peroxide of iron was incomparably easier to manipulate than silicate of copper, and the result obtained with it was correspondingly inferior. The manner of its preparation, as described by M. d’En- trecolles, and confirmed by the Tao-/u and Dr. Bushell, was to roast sulphate of iron to a red heat, add to each ounce of this five ounces of carbonate of lead, and mix the two with glue. M. Salvetat, speaking of this process, says : — “In order that this colour should vitrify, it must evidently borrow a sufficiency of silica from the porcelain itself. One sees that such a colour 284